EPF investment scam: UPPCL's 3 ex top brass remanded to police custody

A magisterial court here on Wednesday remanded UPPCL's former Managing Director A P Mishra and two other top officials of the state enterprise in police custody for three days in the case of investment of over Rs 2,600 crore of the PSU employees' provident fund in the tainted housing finance firm DHFL.

Besides Mishra, the two other UPPCL officials, who were remanded in police custody are PSU's former General Manager (Finance) P K Gupta and former Director(Finance) Sudhanshu Dwivedi.

CB-CID Judicial Magistrate Kshitij Pandey handed over the trio's custody to police after they were produced before the court for the first time on Wednesday.

While Mishra was arrested on Tuesday, the two other former officials were apprehended on November 3.

All three were produced in the court under tight security.

Earlier Mishra's counsel Pranshu Agrawal had moved the court seeking adequate medical facility to his client saying that he was a chronic heart patient.

He also sought for Mishra, better living condition in the jail contending that he was a practising advocate and a member of the Oudh Bar Association as he got enrolled with Uttar Pradesh Bar Council after ceasing to be a government servant.

On Mishra's plea, the court order adequate medical facility to him as per the jail manual provisions.

Advocate Agrawal also argued that there was absolutely no case against Mishra as he was not even named in the FIR registered in the case pertaining to the investment of provident fund of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Employees in the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Ltd.

He said his client was being harassed solely on political grounds.

The court earlier had allowed the judicial custody of the accused till November 16.

The Economic Offence Wing of the state police, however, sought their police remand on Wednesday, saying that it needed them for their custodial interrogation and to confront them with each other for the purpose of probe.